Mark Steel is coming to your town

BBC Radio 4 is bringing its Sony award-winning series Mark Steel’s in Town to Bedford. Recording on Wednesday 10th May – The Quarry Theatre at St Luke’s.

Every year on BBC Radio 4, comedian, columnist and author Mark Steel visits 6 towns across the UK. He delves into their history, people and idiosyncrasies to try and work out what ingredients combine to make the place distinctive.

Before each episode, Mark visits the places he will be performing in; he meets with the locals and researches the town’s history. He then performs a tailor-made stand-up comedy show about the town in front of a local audience.

As well as shedding light on the less travelled to areas of Britain what Mark uncovers will undoubtedly resonate with us all as we recognise the quirkiness of our shared voice and identity as part of a community and the rich tapestry of remarkable events and people who shape the places we now live in.

The show is now in it’s 8th series. Previously, Mark has recorded shows in over 40 interesting and unusual places from the Isle of Portland in Dorset to Kirkwall, the capital of Orkney; plus Alderney in The Channel Islands and Gibraltar. One of the great things about the show is the ability of the locals to laugh at themselves and the eccentricities of the area.

Stuart Morris, a historian who helped to provide research for Steel for the Portland show commented: “I was amazed that he should have absorbed so much of the island’s history in the short space of time”.

In 2010 Mark Steel’s in Town won a Silver Award for “Best Comedy” in the Sony Radio Academy Awards and in 2012 it won the Gold Award in the same category.

Also in 2010 it won The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Award for “Best Radio Comedy / Light Entertainment”.

In 2015 the show was nominated for the Chortle awards for Best Radio Show and it won the British Comedy Guide award for Best Radio Comedy. The show was nominated again for these awards in 2016.